Redskins Nation is a half-hour show devoted to giving fans unfiltered access to the day's events at Redskins Park. Hosted by Larry Michael, the show features Redskins players, coaches and sit-down interviews with team officials. (Show re-airs at 11:30 p.m/7:30 a.m. daily)

Redskins Nation is a half-hour show devoted to giving fans unfiltered access to the day's events at Redskins Park. Hosted by Larry Michael, the show features Redskins players, coaches and sit-down interviews with team officials. (Show re-airs at 11:30 p.m/7:30 a.m. daily)

Redskins Nation is a half-hour show devoted to giving fans unfiltered access to the day's events at Redskins Park. Hosted by Larry Michael, the show features Redskins players, coaches and sit-down interviews with team officials. (Show re-airs at 11:30 p.m/7:30 a.m. daily)

Redskins Nation is a half-hour show devoted to giving fans unfiltered access to the day's events at Redskins Park. Hosted by Larry Michael, the show features Redskins players, coaches and sit-down interviews with team officials. (Show re-airs at 11:30 p.m/7:30 a.m. daily)

Redskins Nation is a half-hour show devoted to giving fans unfiltered access to the day's events at Redskins Park. Hosted by Larry Michael, the show features Redskins players, coaches and sit-down interviews with team officials. (Show re-airs at 11:30 p.m/7:30 a.m. daily)

Redskins Nation is a half-hour show devoted to giving fans unfiltered access to the day's events at Redskins Park. Hosted by Larry Michael, the show features Redskins players, coaches and sit-down interviews with team officials. (Show re-airs at 11:30 p.m/7:30 a.m. daily)

Redskins Nation is a half-hour show devoted to giving fans unfiltered access to the day's events at Redskins Park. Hosted by Larry Michael, the show features Redskins players, coaches and sit-down interviews with team officials. (Show re-airs at 11:30 p.m/7:30 a.m. daily)

Redskins Nation is a half-hour show devoted to giving fans unfiltered access to the day's events at Redskins Park. Hosted by Larry Michael, the show features Redskins players, coaches and sit-down interviews with team officials. (Show re-airs at 11:30 p.m/7:30 a.m. daily)

Redskins Nation is a half-hour show devoted to giving fans unfiltered access to the day's events at Redskins Park. Hosted by Larry Michael, the show features Redskins players, coaches and sit-down interviews with team officials. (Show re-airs at 11:30 p.m/7:30 a.m. daily)

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Mike Shanahan will be one of three NFL head coaches taking part in next month’s events honoring their friend and former assistant coach Mike Heimerdinger.

Heimerdinger died last September after he was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer the year before while working as the Tennessee Titans’ offensive coordinator.

Shanahan and Heimerdinger were close friends and college roommates at Eastern Illinois University. Shanahan hired Heimerdinger as his wide receivers coach in Denver from 1995-1999 and the two were reunited in Denver in 2007 when Heimerdinger was hired as assistant head coach-quarterbacks.

On Friday, the NFL community lost one of its members in former offensive coordinator Mike Heimerdinger, to lymphatic cancer at the age of 58.

Redskins head coach Mike Shanahan and the man that his family and friends knew as “Dinger,” were close friends and college roommates at Eastern Illinois University. Their professional careers also crisscrossed several times, when Shanahan hired Heimerdinger to his first NFL job as his wide receivers coach in Denver from 1995-99. After leaving to be the offensive coordinators for the Titans and Jets, he returned to Denver in 2007 as assistant head coach and quarterbacks coach.

Even after all that, Shanahan still owed him one.

One day during spring practice in college, Shanahan got jacked up on a play, and came back to the room throwing up blood. It was Dinger that called the ambulance for his ailing roommate.

Shanahan released a statement about the death of his friend before the game, but did not address reporters on the topic until the game on Sunday. He stayed poised and professional at the podium after the game, but it was clearly still an emotional moment for him.

“Well, I think he had something to do with maybe some of those plays,” he said. “Especially some in the fourth quarter.”

Whether or not your personal sense or spirituality allows you to believe in such things, it wouldn’t be the first time that Dinger was looking out for Shanahan.

“Any time you lose a dear friend, somebody that you’ve been very close with for a very long time–especially at his age–is very tough,” Shanahan reflected. “He’s got a great family, great kids, and it’s gonna be tough. But they’re gonna make it. If you guys knew him, you’d know that we just lost a great person.”